The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Tommy and Austin Tilden are father-and-son coroners who work from the mortuary attached to their home. A Jane Doe is delivered late at night: a young woman found partially buried at a gruesome murder scene, her body externally pristine. As they work through the night the anomalies accumulate — her wrists and ankles show binding trauma with no external bruising; her lungs carry charred tissue consistent with being burned alive; her stomach contains a charred cloth bundle wrapped around a tooth and scratched with symbols; every major organ shows evidence of severe internal trauma with no external evidence; her eyes are clouded as if dead for days but her body reads fresh. A storm locks them inside the mortuary. Lights flicker. A corpse sits up in a drawer. The radio plays only 1960s pop songs — the same station on a loop. Tommy is killed by a falling gurney. Austin pieces together the truth: Jane Doe was a woman tortured during the Salem witch trials, her body used as a vessel to contain an evil that had to be sealed inside living flesh. Desecrating her through autopsy releases what was imprisoned. Austin begins injuring himself to match her wounds, hoping to re-seal the entity. The supernatural activity stops. Dawn light enters the mortuary. Jane Doe's eyes open.